Critical Approaches to Film Film & Feminism

14 th MarchFeminist Film Theory part 2 The Virgin Suicides Introduction to class test 21 st MarchIntro to film and ethnicity & screening of Do The Right Thing 28 th MarchPreparation for class test 4 th AprilMock class test 11 th AprilClass Test Easter Break !!!!

30% of Module Mark 11 th April Multiple choice questions 1 question on ideology (with reference to Cinema/ Ideology/ Criticism reading) 1 question on film and feminism (with reference to Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema reading) 1. Question on colonialism, Racism and Representation’ (with reference to ‘Race, ethnicity & Film reading) Link to films studied on course

Film & Feminism

Hollywood’s portrayal as women: Mother Girl next door Women in film = socially inferior Stereotypes & stock characters Glamorous sex goddesses, femme fatales, self-sacrificing mothers Men’s fantasies Excluded from genres Submissive characters ‘Woman’s film’ invented to compensate

Link to website They are sweet, kind, smart, simple, sometimes tough and tomboyish, but never vulgar

Feminism & Film 3 concerns 1.Role of women in narrative of a film 2.Women’s physical appearance through the visual scheme of a film 3.How a film communicates with the ideal spectator

Adopted by feminists as mean of understanding way women are represented on screen.

Key Terms in Mulvey’s text stemming from Psychoanalysis

Scopophilia = Freudian term - pleasure taken in looking. ‘The love of looking’ Scopophilic instinct occurs when people/ images viewed as erotic objects. Spectators get a sense of power from being able to do this

Voyeurism = Pleasure is voyeuristic when it is dependent on the object of the gaze being unaware. In cinema we are voyeurs, watching people on screen who are ignorant that we are watching them. We derive pleasure from this. Camera is also voyeur.

Fetishism = An object becomes a fetish when it is the focus of sexual desire. In film the audience may notice an excessive objectification of female body, numerous shots of breasts and legs. The intense concentration on parts of the female body in the cinema is a prime example of fetishism.

Narcissism = This is erotic pleasure derived from looking at one’s own body. Both Freud and Lacan say it was a natural stage in childhood. In film: audience’s identification with the image on screen e.g. mirror stage. Narcissus – Greek God fell in love with his own reflection!

Key points: Visual Pleasure & Narrative Cinema Concerned with relationship between film & viewer Way classical film language constructed speaks to implied male viewer How films appeal to spectator Pleasure from viewing films & characters Looked at how men & women are represented in film. Used psychoanalytic film theory (ideas of Lacan & Freud) Spectatorship & act of looking provided a form of sexual gratification Used Freud’s notion of scopophilia (getting sexual pleasure from looking at others (Freud noted guilty feelings) Cinema perfect place to get ‘scopophilic’ pleasure – film characters not aware of being watched – not made to feel guilty. No one can see spectator getting pleasure (darkened room)

Key Points continued… Cinema provides voyeuristic pleasure Uses Lacan’s mirror stage: idea of seeing yourself visually reflected. Used this to explain why people like films Spectator identifies with what’s on screen (like in the mirror) Most mainstream films made by male filmmakers for male spectators (according to Mulvey)

What pleasures does male spectator get? Women seen as spectacle Women to be looked at Narcissistic identification – sees hero & wants to be like him Admires male characters on screen Voyeuristic objectification – gets pleasure from women on scren

Audience/ viewer put into perspective of heterosexual male How an audience view women on screen Women seen as objects Not possessors of gaze Control of the camera (and thus gaze) comes from male as audience of most film genres Female is passive/ Male is active

Sofia Coppola (b. 1971)